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It enables us to sell products like our leather shoelaces to shoe manufacturers in countries halfway around the world and not worry about late payment or defaults. And it helps expand America's export economy, one of the bright spots in our economic recovery.

I met many other small exporters like us at the Ex-Im Bank annual conference in April. I learned firsthand how this crucial program nurtures small exporters by expanding their working capital and protecting them from nonpayment.

The bank does this at no cost to taxpayers. Its operating budget comes from fees and interest from customers like Auburn Leather. Its losses last year came to only 0.3 percent of outstanding financing.

And it supports jobs — some 255,000 last year alone — 70 percent of them in manufacturing companies like ours.

But its charter expires at the end of next year. Without reauthorization the Export-Import Bank would go out of business.

McConnell voted last year to kill this vital agency. He was one of only 22 senators to vote that way, and it passed in Congress with bipartisan support. But this year, the opponents are back, egged on by the Club for Growth and others.

Trying to kill the Export-Import Bank ignores the reality that U.S. exporters face in securing commercial financing, which dried up after the recession, especially for export guarantees or loans or simply working capital — and most especially for small businesses like ours.